Tinkerer

Wouldn't say I find it offensive, but I'll agree with the others that say its quite lackluster and without much meaning. Worse when its from people who don't have anything to say, but feel they must just join in with the crowd. "You will be missed", "Rest in peace", "Will always have fond memories..." all hardly any longer to type and much nicer. Given that it was on YouTube (or could apply to many other places too) it is fairly bland, and perhaps just 'liking' the video memory might have been a nicer sentiment than commenting purely for the sake of it. If you don't even know (or know of) the deceased, then why comment at all. It almost reminds me of the saying "It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought an idiot, than to open it and remove all doubt". "First comment! Woot!!!!!.. oh yeah and RIP {name}" - I would certainly consider offensive though!

As a game designer/developer, my best advice to you would be to start small. Sure, use some of the elements you have already given some design to, but choose something much smaller than the mmorpg-strategy-breeding initial plan. Keep that purely as a later goal. Do something small to learn the ropes, learn the tools, learn the processes. Being able to see the finish line and to have something small enough that you can play it while developing and learning is a great motivator. Good luck!

With 20 carpentry, since the last update, I can't plan the roof to my otherwise completed single floor building. My other building (planned and completed a few days ago) was no problem. [23:43:25] You need higher Carpentry skill to build at that height.

Many tools will not go on a weapon rack. (Chisels, files, knives, awls, shapers, etc) unless you put them inside a pan hanging on the weapon rack. +1 to Tool racks or a workbench to hold them, and for the love of all things wurmian, please let fishing rods also fit on it!

The only part that sounded off with your initial idea was the 'forced friendship' part. Although this is great for new players or even people who don't have lots of in-game friends, it's not for everyone. A choice is always much better. However, it might be nice to add extra incentive to go the 'random start location' route. Starting at a random deed with random strangers could give extra benefits, whether it be in the form of a buff, starting with full sleep bonus, or something else entirely. Encouraging new social contacts is far better than forcing them on everybody.

The problem with this, is that it can confuse the new player. They know their skills are going up, but because of the buff there is no feedback to the player as to the effect of increasing skills - yes, it makes things easier, but the diminishing buff counters it, by slowly making things more difficult. Nett result until the buff is completely used up, there is almost no perceivable difference in skilling up. If you instead just had it 'çut off' after a time period, then the players instead experience a sudden and confusing jump in difficulty. @Ayes: I've never sold anything in Wurm, but have often purchased. However, I find the system of finding what you want, trying to find out a reasonable value for something (to see if you are being royally ripped off or not), and even purchasing said items a real hassle. Checking on countless merchants, refering to forums or chat, marking down prices, to try and compare here and there, then trying to locate the merchant you had previously seen something up for consideration on.. its a tedious hassle that really deters one from bothering to purchase unless its really urgent - or you have nothing better to do with your time. This,I believe then has the knock on effect of making selling via merchants less profitable for the sellers, meaning more and more merchants end up with empty stocks, making it even less interesting for the buyers... and so on. I don't care if the sellers are making real money... they are saving me (and others) frustrations of failures, or time I (we) don't have.So I'd love to see a 'one-stop' location (per market hub) where I can browse and compare everything, and easily choose what I want to buy. Nothing really changes for the sellers, except that they have to set their prices to be competitive (as I can now see other prices in the same UI), however, it should encourage more buyers to actually buy. 'buy orders' and 'sell orders' take this not only a step further, but also allow for a new playstyle of being a market trader, or delivery man. Many have tried this in the past, but the game itself provides no support for it, and it is heavily dependent upon actually chatting with the people involved.Thus most attempts ended up drifting into oblivion and being forgotten failed ventures.

A BIG +1 to 'buy orders', +1 to mild/harsh winters affecting crops/livestock, -1 to voting for buffs from taxation revenues (too much nitty gritty - and forces those who prefer solitary play to have to socialise with the rest of the local area to get their due benefits from the taxation) Cross server trading is somewhat iffy... what happens when you have one server with very fast skill gains, and lots of high quality resources.. I would also say -1 to needing to use crates or any form of packaging. Ideally it should allow anyone to buy any amount of a bulk sell order, and either directly keep the items for their own use, or sell them on, or use them to add towards an existing buy order. Forget crates, forget decay on said crates.. if you choose to package it yourself for the journey to help prevent decay, that's fine, but it should be your choice, not something enforced by the system. When you sell, you just select the buy order of your choice, and enter the amount you wish to sell, or split your stock between all existing buy orders, I also agree about getting rid of the existing merchants - the system of having to query each merchant in a market place to view individual lists of items is one of the things that makes the current marketplace so tedious and time consuming to use. One local hub, one place to look, one place to buy or sell. However, comparing to a marketplace like in EVE, you are forgetting about 2 elements. 1. NPC sales and purchases - certain NPC planets have limited (periodically refreshing) stocks of some basic items. This is one way to help regulate prices to a certain extent (as least, minimum values) as well as providing newer players with guaranteed trade opportunities. 2. A tariff depending on how long you want something to be on sale for, or length of time for a buy order to exist. The longer you want to keep it there, the more you pay, and is calculated as a % of the total sale or purchase order value. This then gets round issues relating to decay and can simply allow 0 decay on items without it simply being considered free, safe storage. It also prevents over-valued sale orders sitting in the market for excessively long durations. It also helps keep the sale price low - as you want to shift it all before the sale expires - so as not to have wasted the tariff cost. In the case of buy orders, it helps ensure that the buy order value is higher than average.. players will want to have their buy order fulfilled so as not to have simply wasted the spent tariff/tax. After the time period has elapsed, items are removed from visible sale/purchase and are then subject to decay rules of a normal container until either collected or they have disintegrated, Thus sale prices are encouraged to remain low, and buy prices are encouraged to be higher than average due to tariffs and time limits. This then provides opportunity to players to transport items between trade hubs to fulfill buy orders for a profit. Merchants can be given other uses or benefits (possibly required for larger maximum quantities in bulk orders, possibly for extra 'slots', possibly as the mechanism for expanding your 'market visibility' - seeing the information from more distant hubs, Traders could allow remote adjustment of your sale or buy orders, or somewhat similar to current functionality but with periodic randomised NPC buy/sell orders) Actually, the more I think of it, a merchant could allow the checking of the markets (within 'r' radius of your position) without actually having to physically go to a hub yourself. It can be perceived as the merchant surveying them for you. Thus perhaps some players have an advantage living close to one hub for ease of access, but perhaps someone living midway between two hubs actually has better visibility (not needing to physically interact with hubs to view sales) and can spot profitable trades between hubs.

The difficulty of creating your first cart, first sickle, first hut, first bed. first boat, create perfect 'milestones' and a great sense of accomplishment for new players. Having these to be very easy to make or even god forbid freely available kills a lot of the early appreciation. However, returning to the anchor example, its not really that 5 hours was too much and that 5 minutes is too little.. a rowing boat was a huge undertaking and completing the first one with low skill levels gave great satisfaction. The larger issue regarding material loss on failure - hurts new players considerably more. They generally do not have decent places to store items, do not have horses, and often times are walking at very low speeds while encumbered. Item loss and having to head back out to mine more lead, or chop more trees, while carrying or dragging everything else you own is especially cruel. That said, the spamming of "create" until the 'success' arrives really is too far at the other end of the spectrum. I would be perfectly ok with something like 15-25% damage to a component after a failure. (rather than the current 0%-1% things seem to get), so with less than a 20% chance at creation, you may need a spare component to use in the creation process. Certainly increasing the 5 minutes, but still shorter than the previous 5 hours. The same goes for continuing items. Failure to continue gives more damage to the item you are trying to add, but not a flat out item loss.

Spot on with that.. definitely one of the underlying flaws. However, expanding the number of rares and so on... means that its far easier to obtain what you are after by yourself - as well as over-saturating the market, thus reducing their rarity and value.

Well I've always been a somewhat solitary player. I like to relax when playing wurm (or insert other game title) and not be sitting at the screen waiting for a group of people and some kind of group activity. Sure, I'll help out with anyone in local and whatnot, but I enjoy the solitude for the most part - one reason I still love playing on the abandoned GV Buying, selling...? I had often traveled to the market, perused the traders and their wares - which was a slow and laborious process - requiring movement, negotiating menus and mouse clicks... often just to find out that the trader has nothing in stock. It was a slow cumbersome process for buyers. Seller's I should imagine had the added time-waste and annoyance of constantly traveling to the market to check stock levels and give the trader fresh items. Traders could have 'disappeared' from the market for a few hours during the night and could have auto-collected anything marked as for sale from a deed. I have also used the forums - when wishing to purchase items - as the equivalent of a yellow-pages. (For instance when looking up a blacksmith to inquire about purchasing a whole load of lamps - mailed to me) The economy and market situation 'worked', but it was somewhat painful and cumbersome to use. I wonuld however love to see a trading system similar to EVE with market visibility and still requiring some form of collection - a flat out auction-house style listing (especially without requiring collection or purchases) might actually completely kill any local economies. The changes to crafting have seriously reduced the time required to build basic items. But Imping is still prone to failure as much as it used to be - thus has not really reduced the 'difficulty' or market prices too much. In the old days having the sword blade disappear after failing to attach it to a handle was not only highly frustrating, it was also somewhat laughable. One might also remember adding a rope to an anchor.... The penalty reductions on crafting and creation are definitely a positive change to the game. However, item creation failures add almost no damage to items and this could be ramped up substantially. Meaning that after quite a few failures you actually might need to replace one of the components. Communal participation in game... this is definitely a big factor pertaining to player retention. Though I firmly believe it should not be forced, but merely encouraged. Many a game will have some 'çommunity' related task in their step-by-step tutorial, forcing players to attack another player, or add a stranger as a friend.. such forceful and compulsory measures are most commonly quickly followed by my departure from the game. In the days of Golden Valley as the non-premiums home, I remember one 'únforced' but common situation which enticed interaction between players - and this came in the form of 'pelts'. Wild animals were often in short supply and usually very hard to kill for an unequipped unskilled new player - thus obtaining the pelt to help improve or craft other basic tools often became a 'solo-play' choke point. There were often several of these. Obtaining particular seeds/sprouts was also pretty hard, but this at least did not interfere with progress to the same extent as a pelt. I think the 'game difficulty' is (at least for new players) just about right, You are not hampered too much by the game mechanics, but mostly just by the environment - locating resources, finding somewhere to build camps and getting together everything you need until such time as you might have a finished deed somewhere. The difficulty of using the markets however really encourages self-reliance, rather than interaction with other players. I for one would love to see the markets/economy being addressed. I often want to buy things - but really can't be bothered with all the effort that requires - given that other chores demand so much of my game time. Enticing potential buyers to buy more, should also means more silver gets purchased - meaning more revenue.

Yep, in the same way you can combine mortar, but it will only use 1kg of the total when continuing a wall. Or lye, where it will only use a portion of the total, or a huge mass of combined strings will only use 0.3 when making a sheet of cloth.. the list goes on. A 'press' will only use 0.5kg of reed fibre from a larger combined amount... why should a fruit press be the odd item. +1

Perhaps a little more applicable when changed to: Each change he makes will either make most of the people unhappy most of the time, or some of the people some of the time, but he hasn't quite yet managed to make all of the people unhappy all of the time - but there's always next time to try.

Yeah, exactly what I meant. It would make terraforming a lot easier to get it exactly how you want it. Can't think of any problems it would cause either at the moment...

What if flattening were possible on tile borders? Only affecting two corners in the process? Incidently - with your initial problem.. wouldn't it be easier to just plant a tree to block a particular corner from being affected by the flattening action?

What if the slope is currently a level slope? +10 +10 0 0 which corner would lose 1 dirt first and which would gain it? I'd say that it should just take 1 from all highest corners, and give to the lowest until that corner is no longer the lowest. so after 1 'round', those corners would become +9, +9, +1, +1 after a second, +8,+8,+2,+2 and so on But What about a the situation like: +3 +1 +1 +1 If you just take 1 dirt from the +3, which corner gets it? maybe that goes +3, +2, +1, +1 then: +2, +2, +1, +2, then +1,+1,+1,+1 (with 3 in inventory)? Or, perhaps a flatten action could automatically use any dirt in inventory? So if you started with 3 in inventory, the first action would have made it +3, +2, +2, +2 then take 1 from the +3?

Hmm.. true. But some items (eg statues) should really be cast as opposed to forged. Some jewellery could still be forged without requiring clay skill, but for the full range of options perhaps clay becomes a valued aspect?

+1 to pretty much everything here except the kiln (with regard to smelting and such - not sure a kiln is really that necessary t.b.h.) Definitely a big +1 to: building materials (bricks, paving, roof tiles) the smoking fish idea. (Especially if smoked fish can then go in a FSB in the same way as cooked meat.) plant pots (for growing herbs) Can also add some kind of 'volume measuring' pots (always commonly suggested but always countered with silly workarounds involving onions etc) Clay sculptures (think small statues) Ceramic vases for holding cut flowers (decoration) Maybe require more molds for items like jewelery and statues? Not just for key copies.

I'd say due to the inbreeding, that is the first largest factor for wanting to keep a larger herd. The second being that horses are substantially weaker and easier to lose in combat. I don't want to keep a whole load of horses eating my fields, but I am forced to in order to avoid inbreeding and to ensure I always have a couple of usable horses. The current gestation period I think is just about right. It's not 'too slow' to be a tedious wait, and not too quick that it actually means something. While I might want to quickly make lots of cows to milk them, the fact that I can't and must wiat for them to be born and grow to an adequate milking age is part of the challenge and adds a short-term goal for me to accomplish to get to that stage. I still think the rearing, feeding and overall conditions of where the animals are raised should be far more important that simple genetics. Why breed 10 horses hoping for one to be 5-speed when you can just breed one and take good care of it until it gets to a usable age and develop those traits in the process? (see also: http://forum.wurmonl...so-many-animals) I'd also like to see traits themselves re-visited so that other traits were far more beneficial. This would give more choice, The simple fact that people only really care about the 5-speed ones shows a real imbalance regarding traits. Increasing disease, forcing regular grooming, speeding up aging and generally making animals last for a shorter time feels more like a cure for the symptom rather than a cure for the disease. I do like the idea of a barn. Espeically if it limited one horse per barn tile, and you could still see the static horse in it. And a big yes to needing to provide food, water, and cleaning tasks in order to balance what has been removed in the way of replanting fields etc. True.. except when I can go a couple of minutes walk into the wilderness and see a load of wild unicorns, that kind of makes your argument fall apart a little. Though I can understand your point. But again it hits the realism vs game issues.

Totally agree. While it matters much less once you are into the game, at the start it is a huge part of the first impression. I'd also add in that the many problems with different graphics cards also acts as a big roadblock for many. When you are used to playing other AAA titles on your computer, then try Wurm and you have severe graphics lag, that's another big obstacle. Needing to reconfigure drivers or turn off catalst or make other odd changes just to 'try' a game is a hassle many will simply run from or avoid. A less common problem from new players has to do with mouse sensitivity. I'm pretty sure there used to be an option for this in settings, but it seems to have been removed.

But.. shorter production timers also means a less valuable product and less skill gain. Leaving more of a grind to make up the defecit of what you would have otherwise have gained. not only that, but it means tools/skills/enchants have a less noticable effect and lose their usefulness. There are already quite a few areas where timers have been reduced and skill gains are far smaller, and this does not please everyone. If you're talking about scaring or attracting people, then really you are really talking about the new players - hence an early starting bonus would be useful to counter that. Mostly though (from experience in watching CA chat from the tutorial zone) its not the action timers that confuse and scare people, but the failure rates. I've lost count of the number of times I have seen things like "How the hell do I make this campfire - I've tried at least a dozen times and it doesn't work" this also adds problems as it uses up a portion of kindling leaving not enough to retry (most have not yet discovered how to combine yet) and they often think its a bug or they are doing something wrong, With a 'beginners luck' type buff, the chances of success can be initially boosted so as not to demoralise new players or screw up creation chances completely. It would only affect items you could already make without the buff - i.e. the 6% rule where less than 6% wont show as a creation option. So a 2% chance item would still not be available even if when multiplied by the bonus it was >6%. It would not lead to a noticable increase in action timers as the buff wore off. It would just seem that you get more failures - but at least you have learned that you are doing something the correct way. Using alts for this buff wouldn't be worthwhile particularly anyway - given the low quality items they would make due to their low skills.

Think I'd rather just have a much longer action timer and far higher chance of success, than both being low. It's just a bit too demoralising failing 20 times in a row.

Yeah, has been suggested before, but it still gets a +1 again from me

Actually I an see an issue relating to PvP. At the moment, you could attack a deed from any direction (some being easier than others - sure) but this would mean all intruders would appear in your area from the portal tile. All defences would just neee to be focused on that one point.

Curious as to how you actually envisage these 'off-map areas' (starting from 20x20) what would the edges of these maps be? just black? would they all be small islands? an invisible wall preventing movement but allowing you to see extra land beyond? Would mining all be on the main map with possibly a small limited one on your deeded area off map? (would be pretty limiting at only 20x20 and also allowing room for your property, farms, and such)